Zoltan complained about his throat feeling weird on Sunday. On Monday morning he had a bit of a fever, lots of sneezing, and congestion. Absolutely positive it was a cold, I checked the Alberta health care system's advice and discovered the fever puts him in the category of a core COVID symptom. He could quarantine for 10 days + feeling better, or have a COVID test + feeling better, before being allowed to return to school. We chose the test.
The system found a testing location relatively close by (in an old Greyhound bus terminal!) and there were plenty of open slots. I chose a time that had more openings, figuring fewer people would be showing up then. It was a very orderly process. When we walked in, we sanitized, were given disposable masks to put on, then sanitized our hands again before being sent to the intake area. The lines moves quickly for the number of people. At what was once a ticket counter I provided Zoltan's health info and received some paperwork, then we got into the next line. He ended up with a back-of-the-throat swab as opposed to a up-the-nose one, which probably felt better. We were advised the text informing us of his results were processed through an automated system and could some through in the middle of the night. Well warned.
Of course by the next day his temperature never rises to "fever" level and he's basically bouncing off the walls in perfect runny nose, coughing health. Waiting for the results.
The next morning I come down to a text on my phone "URGENT from AHS." My heart was pounding as I had never even considered he'd actually have COVID but URGENT sounded, well, urgent. Nope. It was negative.
Still kept him home that day due to lots of Kleenex and coughing. More bouncing off the walls, decided keeping him home was a bad idea. Sent him to school the next day with a box of Kleenex and a bag of cough drops.